today was one of millions
of days I needed to be alone
a cloud of stars outshining
the world on the eve of its end
the dishwasher cycles through
around its own reality again
forget the parables
your knees are cold
here’s an elegy
so many mothers giving
to children we want
to please them
(originally published in The Magnolia Review, Summer 2018)
I want to ask how it feels to be a forest at night,
wood in your lungs.
Tell me the ancient sap suckles at your chest,
that you pine for a spell
of two-glass wine.
It’s negative-three for my plus-one
in this suburb, the
white dress
masked in time, this intruder.
No more imperfections
came so suddenly.
(originally published in The Rain, Party, and Disaster Society – August 2015)